JuntoBlog

Female Founders and Chicago Both Rise In Global Startup Ecosystem

Compass (compass.co) just published an illuminating report titled “Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking”. In it, the entrepreneurial environment in several global markets was ranked based on:

Performance

Funding

Market Reach

Talent

Startup Experience

I’m proud that my hometown of Chicago was ranked No. 7 (an improvement of three spots since the report was last published in 2012), and followed the usual leaders including Silicon Valley, Boston and London.

However, the data point I found most exciting was that related to the growth in the number of female entrepreneurs. The Compass study found that the number of female founders in the global startup ecosystem grew by 80% since its last report. More impressive is that the global average of female founders is 18% of the total (up from 10% from the 2012 report). In Chicago, the percentage of female founders is 30%.

Has the startup world been enlightened? Yes. I think that Compass’ numbers, combined with my anecdotal observations (my apologies to statisticians), are leading investors and the general business community to see these women not as female entrepreneurs, but rather just entrepreneurs. They’re no longer being judged by their gender but rather by their concept, execution, commitment and passion.